REAL BELIEF
“For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.” James 1:23-24 (NAS)
I’ve often wondered why people who claim to be Christian, do absolutely nothing as proof of the fact. When the subject comes up, they say the right things and profess the right knowledge, maybe they even go to church, but away from that environment they don’t even think about God much less his commands. When problems arise, they run to the phone before they run to the throne. In fact, God may not even occur to them or may only be an after thought. If someone suggests they seek God for guidance, they wave them off with a “yeah, yeah” and go back to their contingency planning (Rom 5:3-5). Like the verse above says, it’s like looking in a mirror and then forgetting what they look like.
Let’s look at the situation with simple logic. If you believe there is a God and that the God of the Bible is the true God, then you must believe what the Bible says. If you believe what the Bible says, then you must realize there are real consequences and rewards for the life you live. Therefore, you live according to the Bible’s standards. Now, reversing the sequence we see that if you don’t live by the Bible, then you don’t believe in the consequences and rewards. That means you don’t believe what the Bible says. If you don’t believe the Bible then you don’t believe the God of the Bible is the true God, and therefore you don’t believe in God.
Faith without works is dead (James 2:26). Logically, a faith that is real will be manifested by belief and then subsequently works. If there are no works, then there is no belief and no faith. So, if you fall into the category of “you say you believe but you don’t really act like it”, stop deluding yourself. Stop lying to yourself and everyone else. You don’t believe, because if you did then it would show through your life (Rom 1:21).
If you do really believe, well then it’s time you started acting like it.
